The prospect of Wembley hosting the 2020 European Championship final is likely
to move a step closer today when Uefa’s executive committee meets to
discuss, in principle, the idea of a multi-nation tournament.

The possibility of hosting the competition across up to 13 countries was first floated by Michel Platini, the Uefa president, earlier this year following complications with Turkey’s bid and also a desire to ease the financial and logistical demands on one or two host nations.

Platini had announced the Turkish bid as his favoured host last year, a move that discouraged any other serious potential bidders, including England, from entering the contest.

Since then, however, Istanbul has been shortlisted to host the 2020 Olympics, which would effectively rule Turkey out of also hosting the European Championship in the same year.

The idea of a pan-European tournament is also gathering support for other reasons, not least the opportunity it would give for smaller countries to host matches in the competition.

Should Uefa decide to trial the idea in 2020 – exactly 60 years after the first European Championship in 1960 – the Football Association would be expected to strongly campaign for Wembley to host both a semi-final and the final.